Not exactly the voice inside your head

The Ugly Side of Swimming

It’s easy to get disillusioned with the sport of swimming when reading an article like this. I’ve summarized the controversy which you can read about here.

TYR (swimsuit manufacturer) is suing athletes and USA Swimming because USA Swimming requires the American team to wear the Speedo LZR Racer swimsuit.

TYR is suing swimmer Erik Vendt who has a contract with them but will be wearing Speedo because of above bulleted point.

Vendt is counter suing because of the above and because “the lawsuit had taken a toll on his training and preparation. He was favored to claim one of two spots in the 1,500-meter freestyle, but struggled to fourth place in the final with a time more than 17 seconds slower than what he swam in the preliminaries.”

“In February, Speedo unveiled its next generation of suit, the ballyhooed LZR Racer crafted with help from NASA. Since then, 51 worlds records have been broken or equaled — 47 by swimmers wearing the LZR.”

“TYR came up with its own new suit, the Tracer Rise, that the company claims can improve performance even more than Speedo’s more publicized attire. Other companies have struggled to keep up, with Nike going so far as to let its swimmers wear Speedo suits at the U.S. Olympic trials without fear of breaking their contract.”

I have a novel suggestion. Why doesn’t everyone just swim in the nude like the original Olympians did. (I may be making that up.) I’m sure it would be much more fun to watch.